The base for every rum is sugar cane. Either sugar cane juice or molasses. Molasses is a by-product of sugar production.
Rum was first distilled in the Caribbean around 1620, making it the first spirit to be produced for consumption.
But not all rum is the same. It comes in white, gold and dark, depending on how long it has been aged in barrels. Then there are also different categories, e.g. spiced rum. This is enriched with spices such as cinnamon, pepper or caramel. Navy Strength Rum has a volume strength of at least 57% by volume. Assured. Then there is also rhum - which can only be made from sugar cane juice in the French Antilles.
As sailors were often paid in rum in the past, they invented a simple trick to find out whether the rum was pure and not diluted with water. They poured it onto gunpowder and set it alight. If there was enough alcohol in it, the gunpowder burned (proof). This is where the term “proof” comes from and always stands for a higher alcohol content. Navy Strength Rum, for example, does too.
Around 80% of the world's rum today comes from the Caribbean. This may be due to the sunny weather or the turquoise water, we don't know for sure. However, the whole thing is not limited and rum can be produced anywhere in the world.
Rum is versatile: the recommendation for dark rum is pure or on ice, light rum is again well suited for cocktails, e.g. mojito.
The production process:
1. sugar cane is the starting point. Whether fresh sugar cane juice or molasses (the end product of sugar production), the plant is always the beginning of everything. Sugar cane juice generally produces fresher and fruitier spirits. Molasses is a brown, very viscous liquid that produces heavier and spicier rums after distillation.
2. then water and yeast are added. The finished mixture is then called mash and the yeast starts the natural fermentation process, which produces the first alcohol percentages. In the most important step, distillation, the alcohol with the aromas is separated from the water. Depending on the type of plant, different aromas are captured or not, which is the reason why each spirit has its own character and never tastes the same.
3. this is a question of style. Rum has the advantage of tasting extremely exciting and fresh straight from the distillery. The clear white rums can therefore be at least as intense as their matured brothers. The color only comes into play during storage. The longer the distillate is stored, the darker it becomes. The typical, slight sweetness also comes largely from the wooden barrels.
